3.5 Conclusion: Debates on New Constitutional Amendment

This course will select six most outstanding issues in contemporary Korean politics and will engage in an in-depth, interactive inquiry of those issue. They include Korean politics in history, institutional setting of Korean politics, and dynamics of political culture in Korea, profiles of political leadership, myth and reality of the developmental state and the Korean economic miracle, and debates on Korean unification. The course will expose students to contending theories and empirical reality at first hand.
After completing this course, learners will be able to
1. Grasp the most salient and timely aspects of Korean politics..
2. Place South Korean politics in comparative perspectives.
3. Digest a delicate mix of theory and practice regarding Korean politics.
4. Come up with new interpretations of political development in South Korea.
5. Most importantly renew their genuine interests in Korea and Korean politics.

审阅

GG

great course and hope there will be another about south korea . and the professor was really brillant

AA

Aug 26, 2017

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

Great course covering the evolution of Korean politics from post-Korean war to modern day.

从本节课中

Political Institutions in South Korea

Week 3 will start with the explanation of institution including its concept, types and major issues. In the second part, the lecture will expound South Korea’s constitutional foundation and its evolution, focusing on its nine constitutional amendments. Then it will talk about the structure and features of South Korean government, also it will briefly introduce South Korea’s presidential system which will be further explained in next week.

教学方

Chung-in Moon

Distinguished Professor Emeritus

脚本

Now, we have so far covered Korean constitution and government structure. And we came to conclusion that the Korean government structure or institution can be characterized as imperial presidency. And also we look into why it has been imperial with presidents in South Korea. And what are the con debate in new constitutional amendment? In fact, that we'll be having presidential election next year, December 2017. And now national assembly and civil society and miss media are now talking about constitutional amendment. Of course some people argue that what is important is how to improve people's life. But some others argue that, that would be constitutional amendment. There has been no national consensus on whether to have a constitutional amendment or not. But in my personal view, they could be increasing or mounting pressure for constitutional amendment. Then, what are the major issues? Obviously, it has something to do with Presidential term According to 1987 constitution, our President is supposed to have a 5 year, 1 term presidency. But now we have a problem because if you have one term five year president toward the end of that come, the present time subject to lame duck phenomenon which, in turn, undermines national governments, like the United States. Some scholars have been arguing that we have at least a two-term, four year presidency. And also, there has to be an argument that there must be synchronization of electoral cycle with the legislative election. If you look at the Korean electoral system, every five year we have a presidential election, every four year we have a legislative election, and such a kind of mismatch of electoral cycle between the presidential election and legislative election has created enormous tradition cost. And now it has created kinds of portrait chaos, too. Therefore, some scholars who have been in favor of constitutional amendment, have been argued that they got the same continuation of presidential election of electorate, alleged to be an election. Therefore, there is another big issue. And third main issue concerning constitutional amendment in South Korea is whether we should continue presidential system, or wish to make a switch to parliamentary system. Those people who wanted decentralization of patience of power, they want the parliamentary system. But others argued that parliamentary system could make Korean politics more polarized. Or more divisible in terms of ideology and region, if they're strongly opposed, the is yet to be seen. And also there's another debate on the reform of electoral system. According to constitution you have so called small single electoral district. Some people argue that we need to change into different system. Middle size district or the large sized electoral district in such a way we can minimize in the regionalism in Korean politics. But those issues, electoral system and electoral district system, both has become another issues. We do not know, everything is in limbo. But since we have a presidential election next year, it's very likely. It is very unlikely that we would have constitutional amendment before the December 19, 2017 presidential election. However, some place in Canada may come up with this election pledge, campaign pledge about constitutional amendment. We should wait and see what should be the overall landscape of a presidential election campaign next year.